Tommy's Class 1 Jeep

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by 08sv

What trans is that up there by the motor? link?

Dinky R/C Gr7. I'll let you look it up.

[Tommy R]

Well, it's not a huge update, but at least it's something. I spent a bunch of time getting the front suspension sorted out. It's pretty tight quarters with the steering arm, panhard mount, links, chassis, axle, and even the motor all fighting for the same real estate! But I found a good place to mount the panhard onto the chassis w/o interfering with the servo or springs. It's only tacked in place at the moment. I'll fully braze it when the rest of the fab work is done and I strip down the chassis.

It's mounted at a slight angle to snake it through everything. If you look closely, you'll see I had to trim away some more of the Hand Bros panhard/3-link mount to provide clearance. FYI, some of the links and hardware pictured are for mock-up purposes.


Front view.


At full lock driver side with the drag link hooked up.


Here you can see that I replaced the t-case driveshaft with a plastic version. This is primarily to reduce weight up high to help lower the center of gravity (cg). I'm not yet sure if it'll hold up, but it's not being subjected to as much torque as the other driveshafts so maybe it'll be fine. Time will tell on this one. Oh, and please pardon my messy workbench!


Battery placement is a pain on this one. I want to have the option to run a bigger 4s battery, but under-body real estate is slim to none with this body! But I found an area to utilize in front of the Jeep's firewall. I made this very lightweight aluminum mount with a "diving board" for the battery to live on. It's puts the battery in the best compromise spot to have it as far forward as possible and also reasonably low. Well, it's pretty high up there, but hopefully it'll be okay. The good news is that I can run very long batteries that span the width of the Jeep so I may look into slimmer, longer batteries to lower the cg. But I think it's my best option.


You can also see a very rough outline of where the electronics will go. The most sensitive stuff will go up high to get them out of the water. I also picked up a C.L.A.W. winch for the front. Notice the rear is using my old Toyota's servo winch mount, as I plan to run a rear winch on this truck. The mount still needs to be trimmed up and reduced in size.


I still have a long way to go, but it's making progress, nonetheless!

[R2j]

Looking good Tommy! Your right, there isn't much room left for anything with those TJ bodies. But looks like your winning the battle.

As far as the plastic shaft between the trans and t-case, I never had any luck with them. Even with the aluminum rings on them, I still snapped or twisted them. I ended up using one of the Junfac steel ones that I shorten. And since they're a little smaller than the MIP shafts, you don't gain too much weight. Worth a look.

[hotwheels000]

I agree ^^^^^^^^^ there is a lot of stress on the intermediate shaft.

The nice thing about the Gunfac d-lines, all you have to do to shorten them is cut a slot in the shaft at the appropriate position and slide a piece of steel in and braze it. The D shaped hole doesnt go all the way to the bottom, so you are effectivly creating the D shape with the slot and insert. If it doesnt make sence, contact Difuser (Dan) he showed me this little trick. It may be in the bug build or the pajero build, I cant remember wich one he did it to.

[R2j]

Yep.^^^^that's an easy way to do it.

I ended up cutting mine to length an just welding it solid.

[paleblue46]

Great looking jeep should be really cool ... what is LED work light in the back ground ? work good ? ... I need a good desk top work light .

[Tommy R]

Shon, Devlin... Thanks for the feedback! I currently have a shortened MIP I can use. Not sure if the Junfac shaft would save enough weight to justify another purchase, but more options are always good! I'll look into it.

I'm starting this rig with just a 35t motor on 3s. Since the Dinky Gr7 has pretty tall gearing, I'm hoping the torque output will be low enough that the plastic shaft will survive, but I suspect when/if I run 4s, it won't be long for this world!

paleblue, that's just a cheapy LED lamp I received as a gift some time back. I rarely use it. The light is pretty bright, but very localized so I only use it when I need to look at something small and detailed. I probably only use it once/month at most. Usually my two conventional lamps are plenty sufficient....though it doesn't look it in my pics!

[klabeaume]

Originally Posted by R2j

Yep.^^^^that's an easy way to do it.

I ended up cutting mine to length an just welding it solid.

Did the same on my tj build. Worked great.

[STANG KILLA SS]

nice update Tommy! i have to 3rd the Junfac shafts very nice peices. and a lot smaller diameter. i run them on all my rigs. could help lower your battery tray a hair? so the weight savings could be two fold?

also the panhard rod looks really short? how is axle swing?

love that winch!! so much cooler than a servo winch.

[Tommy R]

Thanks, Cory! Yeah, dropping the height of the battery is a good point. I'll definitely look into it....

I forgot how long the track bar is, but it's pretty similar to a stock SCX10 with the Hand Bros setup. It does have some axle swing, but it's not any worse than what the Toyota had....and it performed pretty well so I think it'll be okay.

The drag link is identical in length to the track bar (which is good), but the angles are different (which is bad). So it has a bit of bumpsteer. It's not horrific, but I don't have any reasonable way to correct it. Everything is just too tight in there! But like I said, it's really not bad.....it's just not perfect.

[STANG KILLA SS]

no doubt the toyota was a performer. so your right, you cant argue with what works, and works well.

[Tommy R]

Finally decided to make some progress on mounting the body. I'm wrestled with this a lot on this build. On of my biggest concerns is easy/quick battery swaps. I don't want to have a bunch of complicated or time consuming mess to deal with. In addition, I want a body that's solidly mounted. I've had good success with Velcro and utilizing alignment features between the body/chassis. But this body will be pretty heavy with the cage work so I want to do something different.

I decided to hinge the rear and this is what I've come up with so far. This is mock up for now. I will likely bore out the clearance hole in the bracket for a bushing.


I'll tether it so it doesn't tilt backward too far and risk damaging the body.


This is my "proof of concept" attempt for the front body mount. They're rare earth magnets. The two shown are glued to the aluminum bracket. Then I have another rare earth magnet glued to the underside of the hood. If this works reasonably well, I'll pick up some larger, stronger magnets to replace these tiny ones. The great part about these magnets is they will always self-center, which is nice. The test will be if they're strong enough.....and if the glue is strong enough to hold them in place. If not, I can try Shoe Goo. If you look at the previous pic, you'll see the one magnet glued to the underside of the hood. The glue is drying at the moment...

[Tommy R]

Well, good news... I think the magnet method is going to work pretty well! But to play it safe, I'm going to get some larger, stronger magnets to ensure the body is held down nice and solid.

So now that the body is secured pretty well, I was able to get some flex shots. The suspension is fully articulated in these pics. I may look into getting a bit more droop travel up front, but it's pretty good where it's at right now.




I'm currently trying to figure out how I want to build the front bumper. For Class 1 legality it needs to be as wide as the windshield. I would prefer a stubby bumper like I have on my 1:1, but that won't cut it. I suspect I'll do some sort of tube bumper to get the required width. Not really sure, but I'm open to suggestions!


And here's a straight-on pic of the suspension at the approximate ride height I want. Note the different angles of the track bar and drag link. Not great, but good enough for a crawler. Note how low the motor is, too. I like that, but it does complicate suspension tuning due to a lack of clearance.

[rocksteadily]

What if you put the drag link in the top side of the servo horn? It should correct the angle a little bit?

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by rocksteadily

What if you put the drag link in the top side of the servo horn? It should correct the angle a little bit?

It would, but there's no room for it. When I turn to the driver's side it would hit the framerail. Technically speaking, I could drop the chassis side track bar mount and build a curved track bar to clear the diff housing. But despite what it looks like, the bumpsteer simply isn't nearly bad enough to be worried about. So it'll likely remain as-is.

[Tommy R]

Got some good and bad news....well, kinda. The good news is I am nearing completion of the roll cage and I'm pretty fond of the design. The bad news is I'm VERY rusty when it comes to cage building! I also tried using Safety-Silv 56 for the first times (I usually use 45) and it's got a learning curve to it.

Basically, I first glued the cage together. Then applied a tack weld at each joint. Next I go through and braze each joint. Finally, I'll clean up each joint as well as I can with a grinder and flapper wheel on the Dremel.

So it doesn't look like much right now, but I'm hopeful it'll clean up well and look pretty decent once it's all cleaned up and painted. But at least you can get an idea of what I'm doing...





I applied a magnet to the windshield so it'll stay upright when I want it to.

[chino63]

Some great progress since I last checked in on this little guy.

BTW, how's the hotrod doing? I fear mine will be sitting for another year or more due to the acquisition of my new FJ40.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by chino63

Some great progress since I last checked in on this little guy.

BTW, how's the hotrod doing? I fear mine will be sitting for another year or more due to the acquisition of my new FJ40.

LOL! I think we were commenting in each others' threads at the same time. That FJ is purty!!

The hot rod project has been slow. I'm ready to hit it pretty hard, but the Jeep needs so much attention right now that I've had to put the Model A on hold for a bit longer. In my little free time I'm tinkering with this little rig.

[Desert Rc]

Who did the molded seats....they look great!

[chino63]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

LOL! I think we were commenting in each others' threads at the same time. That FJ is purty!!

The hot rod project has been slow. I'm ready to hit it pretty hard, but the Jeep needs so much attention right now that I've had to put the Model A on hold for a bit longer. In my little free time I'm tinkering with this little rig.

Haha! I just saw that you posted in my thread. Thanks man, the FJ40 will be a fun one to work on for sure!

I didn't know you have a 1:1 jeep. Thread somewhere?